Author: Katlina Sommerberg Five seconds on the clock. Rachel hurled her coffee cup at the reactor’s control panel, but she missed by five inches. The porcelain shattered against the worn carpet, white shards skittering across the floor. Before the coffee spray hit the ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer A distorted voice grates out: “Your DEDbot is sweating money.” I step back to see who’s heckling. It’s some masked tech vendor, looking to score passing trade by running my mechanical down. “Surprised you can see anything through those ...

Author: Morrow Brady The desire ached deep inside. She was in his head again. The first thought of every day, just true perfection. The beautiful dream of her standing in the red dress, echoing through the halls of his mind. The further he birthed from sleep's wonderful ...

Author: Moriah Geer-Hardwick “Don’t try to talk to them.” The consultant clicks another cylinder into place. It makes a satisfied hiss as it seats properly into its compartment. “They don’t react well to the noise. Imagine one of them emptying an entire scent gland in your ...

Author: Mark Renney I won’t claim that this will be a complete and definitive history of the Mind Wipes because that would be impossible. But I am almost seventy years of age and I have been drained only once. In order to achieve this, to survive with my memories intact, my ...

Author: Dean J Tantillo I don’t remember much, aside from hiding between the garage and the fence, and seeing my grandmother chopping heads off garden snakes with a hoe. And that gigantic lilac bush, the one that shielded me and my secret passageway from view as I pondered ...

Author: Morrow Brady My fingers traced the fine etching of the gold Byzantine coin, lit by the moonlight flooding in through the large window. The etched scene depicted a perfectly carved stone pedestal against a rocky outcrop, overlooking a luscious wooded valley. I looked ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer “They said it should be something like chess. Engaging, yet with depths that would take time to comprehend. When the incorporation of elements from other games was proposed, the complexity escalated. Finally, a quantum swarm was used to ...

Author: Moriah Geer-Hardwick Ghelvius 4. A three-month crawl from the warp gate at Oberon Null. Most of its surface is a relentless waste of brittle rock scabbed loosely over a seething ocean of noxious gas. Most, but not all. There is a place, a single place, nestled ...

Author: Glenn Leung The continents were coming into focus; the race was almost over. Niu Mowang checked his hyperscan; the only other racer close by was the Tiger clan's, about seven thousand kilometers behind. This distance could be closed in under ten seconds. He had to ...

Author: Alex Z. Salinas Back when I was at the Academy, on the outskirts of the Red Asteroid Belt, I bunked for six months with a trainee whom I can still say, with absolute certainty, is the most memorable person I’ve ever met. His name was Kolson, or at least that’s how ...

Author: Steve Smith, Staff Writer Jake rides the lift to the eleventh floor, walks to the corner of the hall and lets himself into his apartment. The lights automatically bathe the room in a warm afternoon glow, the delicious sounds of Charles Mingus coming from ...

Author: Arkapravo Bhaumik “No, it is not that. It is not bio-engineering. Bio-engineering is a lot slower. This is on a planetary scale. Bio-engineering cannot do this, this is mother nature.” Alec said. “Then? The turtles just got together and found the secrets to the ...

Author: Hari Navarro, Staff Writer I began in the winter. My sister's legs spread as bloodied wings atop the kitchen table and I secrete from her womb. Into the breach I fold, a sluice of screaming muscle and I barge through shuddering thighs in a gush of amniotic tabletop ...

Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer Caelsri stalks about the clearing, swearing softly, reading the signs. Her wolf pack has been chased off by her latest finds. Thinking of which, where are those ice-brained bucketheads, anyway? The change of attention saves her life. She ...

Author: Rick Tobin “Would you finish the ceremonies, please?” The Prime, the sanctuary’s leader in white robes with gold armbands, stood over the clear casing where the body of an honored captain lay in state, waiting for family and friends to attend. “Yes, thank you for ...

Author: Janet Shell Anderson Years ago, a grad student reviewing data from a radio telescope in Ohio, found indications that a signal, possibly from a ship in space, was among all the meaningless noise the telescope had detected. He marked “Wow” in the margin. Alien ...

Author: Katlina Sommerberg The library doors opened, after scanning Erica’s face and bags. She came every Thursday, chocolate crescent in hand, and curled into her favorite armchair. Erica usually created digital art, but she dabbled in the ancient craft of pencil and paper ...